Look, I’ve hesitated to write about my obsession with Martha Stewart’s instagram up until now because it just doesn’t seem like something a serious composer/conductor should admit to (much less a 31-year-old man period) but she just dropped 3 pictures that perfectly encapsulate the main categories of her online persona. It’s like she was begging me to provide the commentary.

This post is also part of a bonus category: Unintentional Poetry. (Martha frequently flirts with the haiku.)

#2: Selfies with Celebrities Who Seem Like They Should Be Way Outside Her Social Sphere (which I presume includes only Charlie Rose and Michael Bloomberg)

#3: Martha Doing the Domestic Goddess Thing We Know & Love Her For

accompanied here by outlandish claims to innovation. Who ever heard of “flooding” a cookie in the first place?

Now anybody who follows me on twitter knows that I frequently retweet her (you’re welcome), and I love her instagram for the same reason: Martha does not give a FUCK. Homegirl’s done Time, and she’s not about to waste the rest of her life punctuating and capitalizing. For someone so wealthy and so prominent, it’s refreshing to see an online presence that hasn’t been totally manicured and by her PR lackey.

OK, the well is deep and I could go on for hours, but here’s one last little bon-bon. Pay attention to the time stamps.

Martha went to the opera one night and had a meal 2 hours before it started:

It’s scary when a favorite artist comes out with a new album, because you want that perfect balance of the familiar and the new.

And it’s in that regard that I think Vulnicura knocks it out of the park – after the third track. It’s not that I don’t like “Stonemilker”, “Lionsong”, and “History of Touches”, but I do feel like they’re a retread of Björk’s previous (though excellent) material. I know she can do better.

And damn, does she ever: once we get to “Black Lake”, this album hits its sweet spot and doesn’t stop. That particular track has the epic scope of “The Dull Flame of Desire” but the soundscape of a muted “Vespertine” (with some new sizzle and flare thrown in.) I love the pacing and I dig the senza vib. in a big way.

“Atom Dance” is my favorite track on the album, but let’s all take a moment to acknowledge the utter badassery of that cello break on “Family”: